We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jaime Meekins a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jaime , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I work in the field of community violence intervention (CVI). We focus solely on individuals most at risk of being a victim of or committing an act of gun violence. This type of work usually happens outside the home in a public space which violence and crime are high. Even though community violence involves a relatively small number of people as victims or perpetrators, its effects impact entire communities, destroying public health, causing economic disruption, and contributing to lasting individual and community traumas. Even violence interrupters risk being sucked into this vacuum. As a gun shot survivor and a parent who has lost a child to senseless gun violence sometimes the work that we do is triggering which may sometimes cause burnout from past trauma.

Jaime , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In reality I didn’t choose this work, it chose me. After experiencing being shot and losing my then 14 years old son to gun violence I believe it was God that aligned me and the work I do in gun violence reduction to form this union. I believe what sets me apart from others who do this type of work is that I have an emotional attachment to it due to my trauma and past lost. Instead of shutting the world out I focused on bringing more people in and being in service to my community . I thought to myself, what better way to create a legacy for my deceased son than to fight against the public health crisis that took his life so early. In the past year and an half I was fortunate to be hired by a organization called Nicetown CDC who partnered on a violence prevention grant with a gun violence reduction initiative subsidized by the city of Philadelphia called, Pushing Progress Philly (P3). P3 is a unique response to the gun violence epidemic in Philadelphia. Together, our team works to reduce the incidents of violence, create effective pathways for better life outcomes and promote safety and opportunity in Philadelphia’s most impacted neighborhoods.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

One of the most helpful things for success in our line of work is having lived experiences. The most impactful strategies are generated by personal and lived experiences. These experiences can be used as evidence for research and evaluations, to do case studies, create expert opinions, or documented lessons learned from the field to build the most effective data based strategies to combat gun violence. In every level of this work you will need the voice of the people who have lived experiences.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I believe one of the single biggest resources or institutions that have impacted my thinking around reducing gun violence is the research I have depended heavily on from the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy. Inside of the Harris School of Public Safety is their highly regarded Crime Lab which for 15 years focused exclusively on designs, tests, and scales data-driven innovations to improve the public sector’s response to the dual challenges of America’s gun violence crisis and a criminal justice system that is not truly just. I was so intrigued by their work I applied and was later accepted to their CVI Leadership Academy..

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @pushingprogressphilly
• Other: I have a personal LinkedIn page that highlights a lot of my work. It’s under my first and last name (Jaime Meekins)